News Archive: September 2018

Sports fans across the world watched the American golfer Tiger Woods roll in a putt to win the PGA tour’s season ending Tour Championship on September 23. His victory caps a remarkable comeback from personal struggles and injuries that caused him to plummet to 1,199 in the world rankings less than a year ago, and restores him as one of the world’s best.

Dr Teresa Crew, a Lecturer in Social Policy at Bangor University is beginning a new year of Lecturing at Bangor University with two new accolades to her name.

Dr Crew has been awarded an Outstanding Teaching in Social Policy Award by the Social Policy Association. Teresa Crew, who is the Year One Coordinator (for Social Sciences) in the School of History, Philosophy & Social Sciences also received a Bangor University Teaching Fellowship during the University’s recent degree Ceremonies.

On Thursday, September 27th, at Powis Hall, Bangor University, an event was held to mark the launch of a new and highly significant volume on music in Wales. Cydymaith i Gerddoriaeth Cymru (‘Companion to the Music of Wales’) is an authoritative encyclopedia that covers all aspects of music in Wales from the 6th Century to the present day and is the result of a collaborative project between the School of Music and Media at Bangor University and the Coleg Cymraeg Cenedlaethol.

Bangor University, in partnership with Flintshire Social Services, and the renowned author John Killick has recently celebrated their latest project in supporting people with dementia - Creative Conversations.

The project was led by Dr Kat Algar-Skaife from the Dementia Services Development Centre (DSDC) Wales, at the College of Human Sciences, Bangor University and was funded by Health and Care Research Wales, Welsh Government.

Career Advice, Networking and pizza for students in WalesRecent Bangor graduate Jack Newton, who won a LifeStart Challenge last year and landed himself a job with international outdoor advertising agency, JCDecaux as a result, will be one of the speakers at Wales’ first LifeStartFest event at Bangor University on 26 September.

New findings suggest that more intensive agriculture might be the “least bad” option for feeding the world while saving its species – provided use of such “land-efficient” systems prevents further conversion of wilderness to farmland.

Agriculture that appears to be more eco-friendly but uses more land may actually have greater environmental costs per unit of food than “high-yield” farming that uses less land, a new study has found.

There is mounting evidence that the best way to meet rising food demand while conserving biodiversity is to wring as much food as sustainably possible from the land we do farm, so that more natural habitats can be “spared from the plough”.

Staff at Pontio are delighted to be able to welcome famed actor and screenwriter Joanna Scanlan (The Thick of It, Getting On, No Offence) to the Arts Centre's cinema for a post screening Q&A session following a screening of her latest film PIN CUSHION by first time director Deborah Haywood on Saturday 15th September at 8.15pm.

In order to accommodate arrivals at St Mary’s Student Village, in conjunction with the local council and the police, a temporary one-way system has been arranged for arriving traffic, up Lôn Bobty to the St Mary’s Student Village.

Historic wrecks around Wales’ coastline, such as that of a German submarine sunk 10 miles off Bardsey Island at the tip of the Llŷn Peninsula on Christmas Day 1917, are to play a part in assisting Wales’ growing marine renewable energy sector.

Over the next two years, marine scientists from Bangor University will be surveying the coast of Wales as part of the ERDF-funded SEACAMS2 project led by the University in partnership with Swansea University. The researchers at Bangor University’s School of Ocean Sciences and Centre for Applied Marine Sciences are undertaking collaborative research, including marine surveys, to support the sustainable growth of the marine renewable energy sector in Wales.

Prime-time TV viewers across the UK are to get an opportunity to learn about the life around the Menai Strait as ITV Wales’ popular series The Strait is to be broadcast across the national channel re-titled as ‘The Island Strait’ and shown at 8.00 on ITV for four weeks from September 14.

The series looks at the lives of people who live and work on the Menai Strait- the magical stretch of sea that separates the Isle of Anglesey from mainland Wales. Among the individuals profiled in the series is Dr Mike Roberts, of Bangor University. Through the eyes of the cast of men and women who work in and around this dramatic and unique stretch of water, viewers get an opportunity to understand what an important environmental asset the Menai Strait really is.

As Wales sees a critical shortfall in the number of family doctors to serve the increasing patient demand generated by a growing and aging population, three Welsh universities are running a pilot scheme designed to bring young doctors to North and Mid Wales.

The CARER (Community & Rural Education Route) programme, run by Cardiff University in partnership with Aberystwyth and Bangor Universities, will give Cardiff medical students the opportunity to have a year of their education delivered in GP practices in North and Mid Wales, giving them invaluable experience of working closely with clinicians and patients in community settings.

Each and every one of us define success in our way. But in schools, it is mostly limited to a grading system, with pupils who achieve better marks considered to be more of a “success”. The barriers to this success are not just natural intelligence, or lack of hard work, however, they come from a variety of different places.

For our recently published study, we looked at how poverty and educational attainment are linked in rural Wales. We spoke to children, teachers and other key stakeholders to explore the problems that they experience and perceive. We also looked at national, regional and local plans and policies for combating poverty and increasing educational attainment in pupils.

Concerned by the worrying national trend of rising levels of distress, suicidality and self-harming behaviours amongst UK students, Bangor University’s Counselling Services, part of the University’s Student Services teamed up with experts in Bangor University’s North Wales Clinical Doctorate Programme to provide a treatment that provides practical support and aims to reduce risk. The project has now been shortlisted for a Times Higher Education Award under the category of ‘Outstanding Support for Students’.

What is the purpose of life? Whatever you may think is the answer, you might, from time to time at least, find your own definition unsatisfactory. After all, how can one say why any living creature is on Earth in just one simple phrase?